It's a boy!

And the end to another wonderful Birthday Extravaganza...

Where to begin? Well for starters, I'm on the other side of 20 finally. Gone are the days of, "I'm drunk!" as my go to excuse for life's mishaps, replaced by "dammit I pay my taxes." Ah adulthood. What am I saying? I had an awesome weekend 26 years be damned.

Friday was the big day and I was planning on taking the day off, but it was the company's annual summer outing and I wasn't using a vacation day when we were going to be spending a day playing video games and eating food. And while driving out to Worcester was a drag, all the comped game cards was muy excellente. I schooled some people in air hockey, played some random DDR-knockoff (asked if I was any good, my response was, "I am Asian", lost a week's pay playing Golden Tee and fretted away twelve "$" trying to win this oingo-boingo game of pure luck/skill, but it was all for a good cause, namely my friend's three kids who he was trying to win prizes for. Definitely more fun than I could ever have imagined.

Later that night, after my first powernap as a 26-year old and a plate of my all-time favorite tofu, I was off to celebrate in style: with good friends and copious amounts of alcohol. Vodka to be precise. Ah the Good Life... (much blurriness)

Saturday was Gov. Romney's personal present to me, in the form of a Tax Free Weekend. More on my present to myself (with much help from mom and dad) shortly. And what's a Birthday Weekend Extravaganza without a little bit of food and entertainment? Grilled some steaks and off to Harbor Lights Fleet Bank of America Pavillon for Guster. A gorgeous night by the harbor, marred only by the horrendous opening act.

And talk about being young at heart, body and soul. Sunday I was up to good old Portsmouth, NH for a jolly good time at New England's largest water park. Water slides, lazy rivers, sun, short lines, packed sandwiches, Band-Aids galore: I really had some fun. Had some fun. (Seriously, it was awesome.) I hadn't been up to Portsmouth in quite some time, but it remains a pretty cool city (despite all the white people.) Nice little seaport town with some quality eats.

I managed to take that much-needed day-off Monday instead, just in time for Restaurant Week. (Make reservations now!) Let me just say that the burger at Smith & Wollensky is to die for. Honestly, thank you whatever sacred cow had to go through the Jungle treatment to end up grilled to a perfect, just how I asked medium, layered with sharp Vermont cheddar, some quality LTO and settled atop an amazing suprisingly-sweet brioche bun. BEST BURGER I'VE EVER HAD.

So tomorrow it's back to work, but not before I finish the recap to 2006's Birthday Extravaganza on my new baby. 13.3". 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo. 512MB memory. SuperDrive. And courtesy of my "student discount" 10% off and a FREE nano to boot!

I'm finally cool. I heart you MacBook.